


Angel of Strife

by ditto_licious1



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Crack, Humor, M/M, Sephiroth/Cloud is if you squint, Wingfic, Wings, i don't know how to write a serious story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 05:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18131396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ditto_licious1/pseuds/ditto_licious1
Summary: Sephiroth is a busy man. Between the flow of paperwork that’s constantly in and out of his office and a literal war hanging over his head, you could say he’s immersed in problems that needed his attention. That’s why he truly does not appreciate anyone interrupting him whilst he’s diligently doing his job. He especially does not appreciate when that someone is asking him to do something that is not, and never will be, in his job description. And you could definitely go as far as to say that he detests the fact that the person bossing him around is Hojo.





	Angel of Strife

**Author's Note:**

> again, i've taken creative liberty with the timeline. 
> 
> this also turned into a crack fic ..... don't take this too seriously

Sephiroth is a busy man. Between the flow of paperwork that’s constantly in and out of his office and a literal war hanging over his head, you could say he’s immersed in problems that needed his attention. That’s why he truly does not appreciate anyone interrupting him whilst he’s diligently doing his job. He especially does not appreciate when that someone is asking him to do something that is not, and never will be, in his job description. And you could definitely go as far as to say that he detests the fact that the person bossing him around is Hojo.

“You want me to what?” He asked the assh- scientist in front of him incredulously.

Hojo simply pushed his glasses further up his nose as he answered. “I want you to bring me the newly made Third Class, Cloud Strife.” he repeated word for word.

Sephiroth had a million and one things to say to that, mainly along the lines of ‘do I look like your fucking errand boy.’ and a mantra of ‘don’tkilldon’tkilldon’tkill.’ instead he went with “Is there a reason you can’t have your assistant do this?” or literally anyone else? 

Hojo sneered down his nose at him. “The Third Class has been shutting himself in his bunk since he got the Mako injections. No one’s been able to coax him out. He hasn’t gone out of his room for two weeks, neither for missions or … checkups. Bring him to me by any means necessary.”

Sephiroth stood in the Professor's office, trying to figure out the pros and cons of giving in just this once and punching Hojo in the face.

“Is there a reason you’re still here?” one pro is obviously the satisfaction of doing it. “Or do you need me to repeat myself a third time?” then again he could always go all out and just stab him instead.

Sephiroth debated with himself as he turned around and went up to his office to find the file on a certain Cloud Strife.

Cloud Strife, 19 years old. Promoted to Third Class two weeks ago for outstanding work in the field. Has yet to go on a single Third Class mission. No one has seen or heard from him since he got the injections, but people say he’s still in his bunk due to excessive noise sometimes emitting from the room.

Great. Sephiroth has people that’s in literal life or death situations on the other side of the world to delegate, and here he is stuck with trying to get a petulant child to behave.

The silver haired general gave a last internal sigh before firmly knocking on the door in front of him. His annoyance only grew when the person on the other side of the door completely ignored him. Given the shuffling a feet and the weak sound of a heartbeat, he could without a doubt say that the room was currently occupied by someone. He gave another firm knock. 

“Cloud Strife. This is General Sephiroth. I ask that you immediately open this door. I have gotten instructions to use force if necessary.” Sephiroth was more than ready to cut down the door, drag out the Third, put him on an elevator to Hojo and wash his hands of the whole ordeal. So it was safe to say he was surprised to see the door slowly creak open. 

Sephiroth stepped in. The room was dark and stunk of sleep and … blood. He was immediately on guard. “Cloud Strife?” he glanced around the dark room, his Soldier vision allowing him to see clearly, and his eyes landed on a blanket covered bundle on the floor by the bed. He called the Third’s name again, hoping to at least get an affirming response.

Sephiroth could hear quivering breaths as he stepped closer to the boy. “Go… away.” if it hadn’t been for his abnormally good hearing Sephiroth would swear he’d heard that wrong. “What do you want?” for such bold words the third’s voice sure was shaking.

“You have been missing work. Did you really expect you could continue on like this?” Sephiroth could pick out stains of blood scattered across the floor of the small room. 

“What. do. You. want.” he glared at the boy for the lack of respect. It’s not everyday one of his subordinates would speak out of turn. But when they did Sephiroth always made sure to teach them a lesson.

“Stand up, Soldier.” his voice was stern, not allowing room for argument.

And so the boy did, making his unnatural shape prominent. “Why are you here?” even while being a head shorter he didn’t seem to want to back down.

“I’m here to take you to professor Hojo for a checkup. I suggest you keep in line.” the other was still mostly covered by the blanket so Sephiroth couldn’t completely scope out his reaction, but after years of being out in the field he could recognize a fighting stance anywhere. 

“No fucking way.” the others voice became steadier and steadier. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. He could see the bundle that had started out small had grown to three times its size. Whatever was under there, it wasn’t human, Sephiroth was sure. He had to hold himself back from slicing the uncanny figure down. He took a cautious step towards the other, then another, til he was standing in front of the other (presumably) man. 

The boy was still not backing down, either he was too overconfident (Sephiroth knew of a number of ways he could fix that), or he simply didn’t care about his own life (in which case he had no idea how to fix). 

In a swift motion Sephiroth grabbed the blanket on the boy and tossed it to the side. His eyes widened in an instance as they landed on two white shapes behind the blond boy. 

The blanket landed at their feet and Sephiroth’s breathing came to a halt. As he examined the shapes closer, he noticed they had a distinct … wing shape. 

“What… “ He could only stare at the wings on the Third’s back, reflecting the little light coming from the hallway, making them seem like they were glowing in ethereal radiance. 

The blond in front of him glared at him through his bangs, his blue eyes emitting the standard mako glow.

“I’d rather kill myself than go meet that crazy bastard. You guys think we don’t know what’s going on? You really think we’re that dumb? You people at the top sure have tried to keep it under wraps, but we still hear about the people going missing and who makes them disappear. It’s talked about as only rumours, but everyone understands what’s actually going on.” the blond stepped closer to him, looking him in the eyes without a trace of fear. “So, no, I’m not gonna go with you. Not on your life.” 

Sephiroth could hear people starting to murmur outside, questioning the loud noises. It would only be a matter of time before they’d investigate. He had to think fast.

He picked up the blanket that was thrown on the floor and hastily threw it over the blond and his wings (what the fuck). Covering him up as best as he could, he threw him over his shoulder and started walking towards the elevators.

Sephiroth ignored the mortified looks the Soldiers around him were giving. He also ignored the idiginant squirming from the blond on his shoulder. Luckily they were given a wide berth, so he summoned the elevators in no time. Throwing a glare to anyone inside and watching them scramble to get out and run as far away from him as possible was one of the few pleasures of this job. 

He pushed the button on the elevator and waited til the doors closed before putting down the blond. The other immediately got on his feet and in Sephiroth’s face again. 

“You listen to me! You better just fucking kill me now, because if I’m let into that lab the first thing I’ll do is stab that creepy professor through the heart!” 

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, “I suppose that would be a public service. Too bad we aren’t going to the labs.” 

The blond visibly deflated after hearing that. His wings unruffling in a breath. Sephiroth wanted to touch them. He refrained.

“Then where…?” Sephiroth leaned down to pick up the discarded blanket a second time and draped it over the blonds shoulders (and wings). 

“My office.” the elevator doors opened and Sephiroth lead the dazed blond back through the doors of his office. He closed the doors behind them and then after a second thought, locked them. 

The blond had discarded the blanket once more on his office floor and stood by windows, his wings trailing limply behind him. Now, with a better light source, he could see the faint trails of blood, small splatters here and there on the feathers, then a whole lot right at the base. The blond wore the assigned Soldier sleeveless turtleneck uniform so there was more than enough room for his wings to be sticking out from the sides. Standing by the window looking out to the city below with his white wings reflecting of the light from the sun, lighting up the room in the process, he really didn’t look human at all… more like an angel.

“What now?” The blond turned around. A bit more soft spoken now that he wasn’t trying to get Sephiroth to kill him. 

“I have not the slightest clue.”

Cloud gaped at him “What? Then why did you bring me here if you don’t have a plan?!”

“I did have a plan, but then you decided to sprout wings.” he glanced longingly at the paperwork on his desk. Honestly he’d rather be doing that than be in this mess right now.

“I didn’t decide anything!” the blond squawked. “What? you think I wanted to turn into a bird?” 

Sephiroth thought his hair alone kinda made him look like a chocobo even without the wings, but decided to keep the comment for himself.

“It just suddenly started to hurt after the injections, and then it started to feel like my body was on fire.” 

“That’s normal.” Sephiroth stated.

The blond cast him a glare “I started throwing up and I’m pretty sure I lost consciousness somewhere along the way. And when I came to I had two wings on my back and a shit-ton of blood everywhere.”

“That’s not normal.” 

“Yeah, no shit!”

Sephiroth frowned. Cloud sighed.

“I’m sorry, sir. You don’t deserve that.” the boy looked up at him with a bitter smile. Breath shaking. “I’m pretty sure you just saved me from a cruel death…” Sephiroth nodded and went to his desk to fish out his PHS, Angeal would know what to do, probably- maybe… hopefully. 

Before he could press a button a sudden knock came from his door.

Sephiroth threw Cloud a glance who looked as uneasy as Sephiroth felt back at him. 

“Sephiroth I know you’re in there, what’s this I hear about you kidnapping a recruit? Come on, open up!” he hurried to the door to open it up. News really spread fast in this building.

“Wait, shouldn’t I cover up- “ before he could continue Sephiroth had already let in the people on the other side.

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on or wh- what the shit.” well that’s a milder reaction than what he expected from the fierce redhead. “I don’t know you were into this kinda play, Seph.” and there it is.

“Sephiroth, what’s going on?” Angeal turned his head towards him while keeping his eyes on the blond. Genesis had already walked up to Cloud and tried to run his hand through his feathers, Cloud slapped his hand away with a scrutinizing glare. Genesis threw him a disbelieving look and Sephiroth could only snort at the scene.

“This is Cloud, he decided that he didn’t want to be experimented on, so I brought him here.” Cloud scoffed.

“We’re gonna need a bit more than that, buddy… “

“Hold on… are these real?” Genesis finally managed to pet a wing. Sephiroth wasn’t jealous. “Holy shit.”

“Please stop touching me Commander Rhapsodos.”

“Holy shit.” was the only responds he got back.

“Seph?” Angeal wa practically begging him for an explanation with his eyes. 

“Sit down. I’m gonna need your help with this one.”

“Stop fucking touching me!” Cloud had finally had enough of the others excessive touches. He swatted away his hands and stepped behind Sephiroth, his feathers ruffling in the process. 

“Are you seriously hiding behind the General right now?” Genesis asked a half amused, half annoyed smirk on his face.

Cloud looked up at him seemingly just realizing what he had done. His eyes widened in fear as he took a step back “Sorry, sir.”

“Is this the recrute you kidnapped?” Sephiroth turned to Angeal who was already sitting on his office couch.

“He’s not a recrute, he’s Third Class, Cloud Strife” Sephiroth went to sit across from Angeal. “And you remember how they keep telling us that the mako reacts differently to every person?”

“You can’t be serious… “ all heads in the room turned to Cloud, who squirmed under their gaze, shifting from foot to foot, dragging his wings along with him.

“I can’t believe… I can’t believe his name is Cloud Strife.” Genesis said scrunching up his face. “You sure he didn’t have the wings to begin with?” he asked, turning his head towards the General. Cloud scoffed in disbelief.

“I can’t believe that’s what you’re focusing on.” Angeal glanced at the big wings on the boys back once more. Never quiet being able to take his eyes away from them for more than a few seconds at a time.

“I think it’s the mako reacting to him.” Sephiroth Ignored their antics, mostly because he was used to it, but also because he currently had more than enough on his platter, with the whole kind of, sort of committing treason. “Hojo asked me to bring him in. I don’t think he knows about the wings. But I definitely think they wanted to make him disappear.” he could hear a faint gulp from Cloud.

“Why? What did he do?”

“Can you guys stop talking about me as if I’m not here? It’s making me uncomfortable and I'm freaking out enough as it is.” he ran a shaky hand through his spikes before freezing. “Sir.”

“I kina get why they wanted to make him disappear.” the blond looked daggers at Genesis.

“Do you have any suggestions, Angeal?” Sephiroth tried to keep the other men tuned out.

“Hey! Why don’t you ask me if I have any ideas?” Genesis threw his arms behind the back of the couch looking offended (which wasn’t that unusual for Genesis). “I’ve had plenty of good ideas in the past!”

“This requires a bit of… tact, Genesis. Your last plan involved gunpowder and a fire materia.” Genesis looked confused as he gave off a weak one shouldered shrug.

“I don’t get your point.” you wouldn’t. “It worked didn’t it?”

“Yeah, it did. But this time we can’t go parading him around Midgar while you try to come up with a plan of how to launch him out of the city…” Angeal chuckled. “Unless-”

“Please don’t launch me out of the city.”

Angeal smiled reassuringly at the blond. “No one is launching anyone… parading on the other hand.” the raven haired looked down while rubbing his chin in thought.

“Ohh… that might actually work.” Genesis also rubbed his chin while giving the blond an eire smile.

Sephiroth followed suit and looked at the blond in contemplation. The boy looked more and more confused as the seconds ticked by, glancing back and forth between the three pair of eyes studying him.

“For the love of Gaia would someone please tell me what the plan is.”

“The way we see blondie,” Cloud narrowed his eyes. “You have two options. You can either go into hiding. Run for the rest of your life, without returning home.They’ll look there- or… you could do the exact opposite.” Cloud cocked his head. Making him the spitting image of a baby chocobo. 

“You want me to… stay at Shinra… ?” Genesis shot him a finger gun while clicking his tongue. The blond’s gaze shifted around the room, obviously not taking the redhead seriously. “So what’s the actual plan, because I don’t think you need me to tell you how stupid that suggestion was.” Genesis gave a humorless snort.

“We’re not saying the plan is flawless, you’d still be in danger. But you’d be in just as much danger out there on your own against Shinra. If you stay here we could help you out, and you’d be in the public eye, probably as much as Sephiroth is… .” Angeal studied the blond. “I’d have to make some arrangements, but we could make it work.”

“So what from now on I’ll be known as that winged freak of Shinra? I’m sure that’ll do wonders for my self-confidence… “

Genesis walked up to him, putting his arm around his shoulders and not-so-subtly caressing his wings. “Think of it more like a mascot.”

“I can’t believe I used to admire you.” Cloud shot him a nasty glare, probably for the hundredth time today.

Genesis just looked down at his nails, fixing the imperfections. “I’ve moved on.” Cloud ignored him, choosing to focus on the rational adults in front of him instead.

“Can I at least think about it… ?” he sighed.

“I wouldn’t wait too long, Hojo has been expecting us some three hours ago.” Genesis let out a disgusted sound. And the room fell quiet.

“Look on the bright side, Cloudy.” Cloud gave him suspicious glance, not really trusting him at all at this point. “At least you won’t need a get a stage name.” The blond’s face grew deadpan. “I honestly can’t think of a name more fitting.”

“I change my mind, I want you to kill me after all.” He looked at Sephiroth with a pleading look, and Sephiroth almost felt sorry for him, or he would if he himself hadn’t been subjected to Genesis’... interesting personality for years.

“If this plan fails I’m sure you’d do well as a stripper or something.” Cloud kicked him in the shin. Or he would have hadn’t Genesis backed up at the last second.

“Why are you still here if you don’t have anything constructive to say.” Cloud glowered. Genesis looked at him knitted brows. 

There was a lull in the conversation. Cloud and Genesis just scowling at each other, before the redhead turned giving a leering smirk to Sephiroth. “Is it true you carried him bridal style up here? That’s kinda cute.”

“Dear Gaia below, give me strength.”

**Author's Note:**

> honestly i just wrote Genesis as the dramatic theater friend and hoped for the best


End file.
